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University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
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Showing posts with label
University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center.
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Once in a while some good things come out of the ordinary, the common... and we rejoice!
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Common blood test could detect heart disease
WASHINGTON: An improved version of a common emergency room blood test could be used to detect heart disease in apparently healthy patients, according to a US study published on Tuesday.
"This test is among the most powerful predictors of death in the general population we've seen so far," said James de Lemos, associate professor of internal medicine at University of Texas Southwestern and lead author of the study.
"It appears that the higher your troponin T, the more likely you are to have problems with your heart, and the worse you're going to do, regardless of your other risk factors."
A less sensitive test for the protein, called cardiac troponin T (cTnT), is already used by ER doctors who want to test whether a patient who is complaining of chest pains is actually experiencing a heart attack.
The new, more sensitised version was able to detect the protein in about 25 percent of samples provided by more than 3,500 people.
It "can detect circulating cTnT levels in almost everyone with chronic heart failure and chronic coronary artery disease," said the study.
"People with detectable levels of troponin T were nearly seven times more likely to die within six years from heart disease," added the study, published in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
The research followed more than 3,500 people from 2000 to 2007. Subjects gave blood samples and submitted to multiple body scans, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computed tomography (sectional imaging) to examine the heart and other organs.
"This study was designed to be representative of urban communities throughout the United States where there is a high prevalence of obesity, untreated hypertension and diabetes - just as there is in Dallas," de Lemos said.
The most elevated levels of cTnT were detected among older adults, men, African-Americans and people who suffered "abnormal thickening or weakness of the heart muscles."
De Lemos said he hoped "in the future to be able to use it to prevent some death and disability from heart failure and other cardiac diseases."
Heart disease in the number one killer of Americans, according to the Centres for Disease Control, which said last year that 785,000 Americans had a new coronary attack, and about 470,000 had a recurrent attack.
- AFP/de
Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:Common blood test could detect heart disease
I don't have anything to describe this article. I better not.
Read on...
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Yo-yo dieting alters brain's response to stress
WASHINGTON - Dieters who drop a lot of weight quickly could be more likely to put all the pounds back on, and then some, because of changes in the way their brains respond to stress, a study published Tuesday shows.
Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania, led by Tracy Bale, studied the behavior and hormone levels of mice on restricted diets and found that stressed-out mice with a history of dieting ate more high-fat foods than similarly stressed mice that had not been on a diet.
After three weeks on their reduced calorie diet, the mice in the study lost 10-15 per cent of their body weight, similar to what humans can lose on a diet, says the study published in the Journal of Neuroscience.
Bale and her colleagues found that the mice had increased levels of the stress hormone corticosterone, and in a test where they were hung by their tails, they spent more time just hanging there, immobile, than the control mice. The researchers called that "depressive-like behavior."
The researchers also found that several genes that play a key role in regulating stress and eating patterns had changed in the dieting mice.
Previous research has shown that experiences can alter the form and structure of DNA, an effect known as epigenetics.
Even after the mice were allowed to eat their fill and had returned to their normal weights, the epigenetic changes remained, the study found.
When the researchers put the rodents in stressful situations and monitored how much fatty food they ate, they found that the mice that had been on a diet ate more than the control group of rodents, that hadn't been on a weight-loss regime.
The findings illustrate why a piece of pizza is so appealing after a stressful day at work, and also help to explain why so many people who want to lose weight get trapped in the "yo-yo diet" cycle, where they lose weight, only to gain it all back and then some, the study says.
"These results suggest that dieting not only increases stress, making successful dieting more difficult, but that it may actually 'reprogram' how the brain responds to future stress and emotional drives for food," Bale said.
Jeffrey Zigman, an expert in endocrinology, diabetes and metabolism at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center, said the mice in the study experienced conditions that mimicked the stress that people often experience.
"This study highlights the difficult road that human dieters often travel to attain and maintain their weight loss goals," said Zigman, who was not involved in the study.
"It also suggests that management of stress during dieting may be key to achieving those goals."
One in three Americans is considered obese, according to official health figures.
Dieting is big business in the United States, where consumers dish out between US$33 billion and US$100 billion per year on weight loss diets, supplements, books and other programs.
- AFP/rl
Taken from ChannelNewsAsia.com; source article is below:Yo-yo dieting alters brain's response to stress
